FBI Director Kash Patel
Noman Sabit: FBI Director Kash Patel has said federal agents thwarted “holiday terror plots” in four states in December last year.
In a post on X Monday, Patel said the FBI arrested four members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front on December 12. He said they were allegedly planning a New Year’s Eve bombing campaign targeting businesses across southern California. Patel said on December 21, the FBI and local authorities in Pennsylvania arrested an individual who he said had been “researching ISIS propaganda to utilize in an explosives attack campaign.”
On December 29, Patel said “an ISIS sympathizer” was arrested in Texas for allegedly attempting to provide bomb-making materials to a foreign terrorist organization.
And he said that on New Year’s Eve, the FBI worked with state and federal law enforcement in New York to arrest an individual in North Carolina who allegedly wanted to be an “ISIS soldier” and carry out a mass casualty attack that night.
Patel posted the details of the plots that were thwarted as the U.S. faces elevated terrorism threats amid the ongoing war with Iran. Iran has vowed revenge for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the U.S. and Israel last month.
The heightened terrorism threat also comes at a time when the country’s counterterrorism system is strained by the exit of many experienced nationals security professionals at the FBI and Department of Justice. The firings and resignations and diversion of resources and personnel over the last year to meet other Trump administration priorities, have raised concerns about the capability to head off a potential surge in threats. What To Know
Patel also said the FBI had 640 “successful disruptions” of planned terror attacks and made 707 counterterrorism arrests.
His announcement comes after the U.S. has seen three acts of violence across the country in recent days that lay bare the heightened threat.
Two men, Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, have been charged after bringing homemade bombs to a far-right protest outside New York City’s mayoral mansion on March 7, authorities said. They were inspired by Islamic State, according to a criminal complaint. On March 12, Ayman Ghazali, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon, rammed his vehicle into a synagogue outside Detroit and shot himself dead after exchanging fire with a security guard, authorities said.
The man lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon, The Associated Press reported. Israel’s military said one of the relatives who was killed was his brother, who they identified as a Hezbollah commander.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation into the incident, described the attack as an act of violence targeting the Jewish community. The agency said it didn’t have enough evidence yet to call it an act of terror.
Also on March 12, a former Army National Guard member who was previously imprisoned on a terrorism conviction opened fire in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University before he was subdued and killed by ROTC students. Authorities said the gunman, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, was heard yelling “Allahu akbar” before opening fire. Patel said the FBI was investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Officials have said there is no indication that the men arrested in connection with the explosives in New York, or the man responsible for the shooting at Old Dominion University shooting were motivated explicitly by the Iran war.
The FBI warned law enforcement in California in a recent bulletin of Iran’s aspiration to conduct a drone attack on California. After the warning was publicized, officials emphasized the intelligence was unverified and that no specific plot was known to exist.
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